Evaluation to eyewitness testimony and anxiety

+:

P - is supporting research for negative/positive effects of anxiety on EWT recall

Ev - Valentine and Mesout used heart rate to divide participants in high and low anxiety groups. This study clearly disrupted the participants ability to recall details about the actor in the London Dungeon’s Labyrinth

Ex - this suggests that a high level of anxiety does have a negative on the immediate eyewitness recall of a stressful event

\ -:

P - Johnson and Scott’s research has been criticised as the weapons focus may be due to surprise as opposed to anxiety

Ev - Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken as the hand held items in a hairdressing video. Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions

Ex - this suggests that weapon focus may be not due to be anxiety but rather anxiety and therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of EWT

\ P - research has been criticised for lacking control when conducted through field experiment method

Ev - all sorts of things will have happened to the participants while the researchers had no control of discussions - accounts may have read or seen the media, the effects of being interviewed by the police

Ex - therefore, it is possible extraneous variables could impact the accuracy of recall and not solely the effect of anxiety